All Suspects 全员嫌疑人 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 95 mins. Director: Fu Dong 傅鸫. Rating: 5/10. An okay period whodunit with two good leads but let down by a total lack of atmosphere in photography and design. STORY A remote town in some mountains in China, 1937. Early one morning Song Zhiwen (Xiaoshenyang) and Yamei (Qin … Continue reading Review: All Suspects (2024) →
17 days ago • Subscribe
More like this
All The Long Nights (2024) review [Japan Cuts 2024]
A splendid drama that shows how symptoms can disturb a subject’s life and how the social field attains its cruel complexity due to the riddle of desire.
Review: All Ears (2023)
All Ears 不虚此行。 China, 2023, colour, 16:9, 117 mins. Director: Liu Jiayin 刘伽茵. Rating: 4/10. Over-long study of an introverted funeral eulogist and his various clients doesn’t go…
All New Isekai Anime This Winter 2024 🔥
All New Isekai Anime This Winter 2024 🔥 ✿ What ISEKAI anime are you going to watch? #anime #animerecomendations #newanime #anime2024 #weeb #otaku
All New Romance Anime This Winter 2024 🔥
All New Romance Anime This Winter 2024 🔥 ✿ Which anime are you MOST excited for? #anime #animerecomendations #newanime #anime2024 #weeb #otaku
Belonging (2024) review [Japannual 2024]
Higashi delivers a touching exploration of love after death.
Suton (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
Rikako Watanabe’s narrative succeeds to echo the unvocalized ‘pandemic’ truth of many.
Snowdrop (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A complex character portrait that touchingly illustrates how easy it is to misrecognize the logic of the subject-supposed-to-be-in-need.
Amalock (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A narrative that fluidly combines comedy and tragedy to deliver an experience of smiles and tears.
Review: All These Years (2023)
All These Years 这么多年 China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 116 mins. Director: Ji Zhuqing 季竹青. Rating: 7/10. A high school-to-adulthood unrequited love story that’s utterly generic but beautifully executed…
All My Darling Daughters review
All my darling daughters is a collection of five short stories that weave a complex tapestry exploring the important emotional relationships in women’s lives.Leyla Alert, Editorial Manager, V…
All-Star Fruit Racing Review
Note: Review is of the Nintendo Switch version I am not a go kart racer/mascot racing game expert but I have played a fair share of them from…
Sumiko 22 (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A subtle but playful narrative about a subject who slowly tries to crawl out the hole of emptiness and diminished self-worth.
Blue Imagine (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A powerful reminder of the sexual transgressions that structurally plague the Japanese film industry
Wash Away (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A pleasant narrative that offers a fresh but familiar exploration of the subject’s fundamental desire for recognition/love and the problematic yet medicative function of consumption.
Review: Decoded (2024)
Decoded 解密 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 155 mins. Director: Chen Sicheng 陈思诚. Rating: 8/10. Belated return to form by film-maker Chen Sicheng is a strongly written, subtly played…
Review: Upstream (2024)
Upstream 逆行人生 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 120 mins. Director: Xu Zheng 徐峥. Rating: 6/10. A black but ultimately warm comedy, set among Shanghai’s community of food deliverers, shows…
Review: Untouchable (2024)
Untouchable 逆鳞 China, 2024, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 111 mins. Director: Da Qing 大庆 [Wang Daqing 王大庆]. Rating: 8/10. Cat-and-mouse gangster drama, set in 1990s pre-handover Macau, is stylishly written…
Review: YOLO (2024)
YOLO 热辣滚烫 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 128 mins. Director: Jia Ling 贾玲. Rating: 7/10. Mainland comedienne Jia Ling’s second feature as writer-director-star hits the bell again, if not…
2024 in Review
A year of retreads and repeats, none of them good: War in Ukraine. War in the Middle East. Famine in Sudan. Famine in Gaza. Covid and…
Blue Flames, Chalk-iro no People, Gakkou no Yuurei, The Apothecary Diaries, Dance Till Tomorrow
Give It All Anime Film Review
Within its sports narrative, Give It All is a fantastically realistic depiction of how mental hang-ups stay with a person.
Horimiya Review: They’re All So Pretty
Studio: Cloverworks Director: Masashi Ishihama Streaming on: Funimation Most of my content might lead you to believe I am a brick-headed shonen fanboy who can’t pay attention to…
All You Need Is Kill [Review]
All You Need Is Kill – Banner This was a disappointment for me really, I expected much more from the ratings this manga gets. Everything in the manga…
Review: All about My Mother (2021)
All about My Mother 关于我妈的一切 China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 118 mins. Director: Zhao Tianyu 赵天宇. Rating: 5/10. Vehicle for veteran actress Xu Fan is a predictable cancer tear-jerker…
Penalty Loop (2024) review [Nippon Connection 2024]
The way Araki resolves the narrative’s thematical questions concerning vengeance and the working-through of trauma will divide spectators
Desert of Namibia (2024) review [Japannual 2024]
Yoko Yamanaka delivers a cinematic masterpiece of subjectivity.
Sin And Evil (2024) review [Japannual 2024]
Saito shows that the Other always bears some responsibility for the subjective outcomes of dysfunctional familial dynamics and the criminal excesses that plague its mendacious image of peaceful…
Review: The Wig (2024)
The Wig 戴假发的人 China/Hong Kong, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 119 mins. Director: Dong Yue 董越. Rating: 6/10. Huang Xiaoming gives a strong, atypical performance as a lawyer-with-a-secret, but his…
Review: Article 20 (2024)
Article 20 第二十条 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 139 mins. Director: Zhang Yimou 张艺谋. Rating: 6/10. Comedy-drama, set among a city’s public prosecutors, is entertaining enough due to its…
Review: Crisis Negotiators (2024)
Crisis Negotiators 谈判专家 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 119 mins. Director: Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau]. Rating: 8/10. A cracking, Hong Kong-set re-make of US drama-thriller The Negotiator that’s…
Review: Bureau 749 (2024)
Bureau 749 749局 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 123 mins. Director: Lu Chuan 陆川. Rating: 4/10. Sci-fi monster movie is a wannabe blockbuster holed by a shapeless script, colourless…
Review: The Victims (2024)
The Victims 黄雀在后! China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins. Directors: Xu Wei 徐伟, He Wenchao 何文超. Rating: 7/10. Richly cast, this well-mounted whodunit is 100% plot and procedure…
Review: Reversed Destiny (2024)
Reversed Destiny 沙漏 China, 2024, colour, 1.85:1, 109 mins. Director: Wen Jing 温婧. Rating: 7/10. Good-looking, well-played story of two high-school BFFs would have been even better with…
Review: Life Hotel (2024)
Life Hotel 来福大酒店 China, 2024, colour, 1.85:1, 118 mins. Director: Liu Bowen 刘博文. Rating: 7/10. A strong, characterful cast, led by Huang Xuan and Liu Yan, make this…
City Hunter (2024) review
A fun but very forgettable experience.
Review: Remember Me (2024)
Remember Me 灿烂的她 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 115 mins. Director: Xu Wei 徐伟. Rating: 5/10. Light drama between a selfless fisherwoman and her grand-daughter who went missing has…
2024 Year in Review
At this point I just can’t be bothered to rank things and I honestly don’t know if I could, at least with movies, so here are a bunch…
Review: Pegasus 2 (2024)
Pegasus 2 飞驰人生2 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 120 mins. Director: Han Han 韩寒. Rating: 6/10. More of the same and with knobs on, plus another effortless lead by…
Review: Panda Plan (2024)
Panda Plan 熊猫计划 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 98 mins. Director: Zhang Luan 张栾. Rating: 3/10. A lazy, throwaway attempt at a comic action movie, with an aged-looking Cheng…
Review: Black Dog (2024)
Black Dog 狗阵 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 115 mins. Director: Guan Hu 管虎. Rating: 8/10. Elemental story of re-birth and renewal in a run-down town in northwest China…
Review: Enjoy Yourself (2024)
Enjoy Yourself 祝你幸福 China, 2024, colour, 2.35:1, 111 mins. Director: Kang Bo 康博. Rating: 6/10. Relationship-cum-legal drama sports some good performances but is hampered by a messily constructed…
Movie Review: Abigail (2024)
While browsing Peacock’s catalog for something to watch, Abigail (2024) caught my eye. I wasn’t searching for anything specific, but the film’s horror and comedy labels and the…
Review: Super Villain (2024)
Super Villain 大“反”派 China, 2024, colour, 2.35/1.85/1.33:1, 97 mins. Director: Bao Bei’er 包贝尔. Associate director: Zhang Zuofeng 张作峰. Rating: 4/10. Painfully unfunny comedy about an ambitious actor who…
Memories of this Scent (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
An endearing and fragrance rich tale of subjective change.
2024 Kanji of The Year Is, Once Again, All About Money
Kin (金) repeats its appearance as the 2024 Kanji of the Year thanks to the Olympics and political scandals.
All Shall Be Well (從今以後, Ray Yeung, 2024)
An older woman finds herself in a precarious position when her partner dies suddenly without a will in Ray Yeung’s poignant drama.
AVAHS – An All Dogs Christmas Carol Review
Plot: Charlie, Sasha and Itchy try to make a good Christmas for all the dogs and puppies in town. However, their holiday fun is ruined when Carface crashes…
All About My Two Dads Manga Review
Together, the two men struggle with the highs and lows of raising a child in a story that, despite its title, is much more about being human than…
All You Need Is Kill – Translation Review
What if you’re stuck in a Groundhog day-like time loop? Only it’s not a creepy stalker romance, but a horrifying nightmare in a war-zone. And the English translation…
All in All, You’re Just Another Pig in the Wall: Porco Rosso Review
The name Hayao Miyazaki conjures up a certain type of movie. Awe-inspiring fantasy against a backdrop of idyllic vistas, starring youthful main characters, with at least one mouth-watering…
All the Long Nights 夜明けのすべて (2024) Director: Sho Miyake [Nippon Connection 2024 / Japan Cuts 2024]
Beautifully depicted, workmates suffering in silence with mental and physical conditions feel the warmth of human connection in director Sho Miyake’s All the Long Nights 夜明けのすべて (2024)…